University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music Music, School of 12-2020 Effects of The Met: Live in HD on the Democratization of Opera in America Anna Wigtil Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicstudent Part of the Music Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Music, School of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. EFFECTS OF THE MET: LIVE IN HD ON THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF OPERA IN AMERICA by Anna K. Wigtil A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Music Major: Music Under the Supervision of Professor Pamela Starr Lincoln, Nebraska December, 2020 EFFECTS OF THE MET: LIVE IN HD ON THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF OPERA IN AMERICA Anna K. Wigtil, M.M. University of Nebraska, 2020 Advisor: Pamela Starr The Met: Live in HD satellite broadcasts of live opera performances began in 2006 and have since become popular with audiences around the world. While this could be an excellent avenue to democratize opera and make it available to new audiences, the available data indicates that most Live in HD viewers are already opera enthusiasts and have previously attended live opera performances. This thesis examines the history of the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcasting efforts, the demographics of American opera audiences, trends in Live in HD’s repertoire, and strategies to increase Live in HD’s appeal to a broader, more diverse audience that can revitalize opera’s popularity in the United States. iii Copyright 2020, Anna K. Wigtil iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following people and organizations for their valuable contributions to this thesis: Dr. Pamela Starr, for her guidance in helping me shape this thesis into its final form; Dr. Anthony Bushard, for his academic advising and for being on my thesis committee; and Dr. Bill Shomos, for being on my thesis committee as well as teaching my favorite class I’ve taken here at UNL, History of Opera. I would take that class several times over if I could. Danny Ladely and the staff of the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, for sharing attendance data and other behind-the-scenes information about Live in HD. Daniela Smolov Levy, for her helpful replies when I asked about her dissertation. The UNL Libraries, for helping me access so many resources both online and in print. My work supervisors, Charlene and Liz, for their encouragement and support in going back to school while working full-time. My family, for their support and encouragement – especially Emma, who kept in touch with me every single day; Tessa, who always brings a smile to my face; and my parents, who raised me to value education and love music. Casey, for being there for me every day and bringing so much joy into my life, even if you do like to sit on the computer while I’m trying to type. My Mensa and Toastmasters friends, especially Jenni and Tami, for providing opportunities to socialize with intelligent, like-minded people whom I otherwise would have never met, and for helping me persevere throughout my time in graduate school. Denise, for being my friend and keeping my spirits up with coffee shop writing sessions and brunches at Village Inn. Emma, Erica, Jenni, Mike, and Tessa, for helping proofread this thesis and giving me their ideas to make it the best it could be. And finally, those who unknowingly helped me fall in love with opera – composers Giacomo Puccini and Gaetano Donizetti, and singers Juan Diego Flórez and Natalie Dessay. v PREFACE Gathering information for this thesis presented several difficulties. First, I was unable to make contact with anyone at the Metropolitan Opera who would answer my questions or allow me to interview them. I tried several times to contact the Met’s main email account, their press email account, and their archives, each time receiving either no response or a cursory response. Once, I was told that my questions would be forwarded to Live in HD staff, and another time, I was told they would be forwarded to the Met’s press department, but I never heard back from either department. I was hoping that someone at the Met could provide me with the number of tickets sold for individual Live in HD operas, since the annual reports on the Met’s website only provide ticket sales information for each season as a whole. I also contacted several people at By Experience, the company that distributes Live in HD programming in the United States, but did not receive a response from any of them, either. I was also hoping to learn whether the Met knew of any large Live in HD audience surveys (or if they had done their own survey) since the Opera America survey in 2008. Since I did not find any more recent surveys similar to the Opera America survey, it is impossible to say whether the demographics of Live in HD audiences have significantly changed over the past twelve years. Instead of interviewing someone from the Met, I was able to take some quotes from Daniela Smolov Levy’s 2014 dissertation, in which she shares information from an interview with Elena Park (Supervising Producer for Live in HD). Still, I was unable to discover the answers to some of my questions, such as who ultimately decides which operas will be included in each Live in HD season. vi Since I was unable to get national/international attendance data for each Live in HD broadcast, I reached out to my local theater, the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Their staff graciously provided me with attendance data for individual operas from the past few Live in HD seasons. I discuss this data in Chapter 3, but I know that such a small sample cannot be understood to represent attendance patterns at the national or international level. I had also hoped to survey local Live in HD attendees to gather demographic information, but the Met’s March 2020 decision to cancel future performances due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevented me from doing so. If I had had more time to research, I would have contacted theaters in other locations to inquire about attendance data for individual Live in HD broadcasts. I would then have a larger dataset from which to draw conclusions about the relative popularity of each Live in HD broadcast. If it were not for the Met’s pandemic shutdown, I would have also attempted to survey Ross Media Arts Center attendees at a few Live in HD broadcasts in spring and/or fall of 2020. Despite these roadblocks, I hope that my research presented in this thesis is a good starting point to examine The Met: Live in HD’s successes and failures in bringing opera to a wider American audience. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: HISTORY AND CULTURAL CONTEXT ................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2: CURRENT TRENDS IN U.S. AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR AND DEMOGRAPHICS ........................................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF THE MET’S LIVE IN HD PROGRAMMING ............... 45 CHAPTER 4: HOW CAN LIVE IN HD FURTHER DEMOCRATIZE OPERA IN AMERICA? ...................................................................................................................... 58 APPENDIX A: FULL LIST OF LIVE IN HD BROADCASTS ...................................... 74 APPENDIX B: TOP 100 OPERAS BY NUMBER OF PERFORMANCES IN THE UNITED STATES, 2010-2019 ......................................................................................... 80 APPENDIX C: TOP 100 OPERA COMPOSERS BY NUMBER OF PERFORMANCES IN THE UNITED STATES, 2010-2019 ........................................................................... 83 APPENDIX D: RECENT LIVE IN HD ATTENDANCE DATA FROM THE MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER IN LINCOLN, NEBRASKA ....................... 86 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 88 1 CHAPTER 1: HISTORY AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Opera fans are as fanatical about opera as baseball fans are about baseball. We want to make the Met as available electronically to its followers as the Yankees are to theirs.1 – Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera Introduction Live video broadcasts of operas into movie theaters via satellite have regularly taken place since 2006. The first, most well-known, and longest-lasting of these broadcast series is the Metropolitan Opera’s The Met: Live in HD. While the broadcasting of operas to the public is not a new idea (television and radio opera broadcasts have taken place since the early twentieth century), the concept of bringing live events to viewers in a movie theater via a live video feed is still fairly new. The Met: Live in HD has been well-received, and it has inspired other opera and theater companies to gain larger audiences via broadcasting live performances into movie theaters. It has also become a substantial income source for the Metropolitan Opera, with recordings of the live performances being further distributed via DVD sales, satellite radio, public television, and internet streaming. 1 Ronald Blum, “Met Announces Plan to Simulcast Opera,” Associated Press Online, September 7, 2006, accessed October 23, 2019, Nexis Uni. 2 Opera has long held a reputation as a form of entertainment for the wealthy and elite. While millions of tickets have been sold to The Met: Live in HD and similar broadcasts from other opera companies, who is actually attending? Are many of the attendees complete newcomers to opera, or are the majority of viewers already opera enthusiasts? How do the demographics of Live in HD viewers compare to those of live opera? The availability of opera and other performing arts events in movie theaters could benefit people who cannot easily access live, professional classical music and theater performances due to distance or expense.